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# "Mittäterschaft"

> Germany voted a confirmed far-right party into power. The explanations people reach for - protest votes, media manipulation, politicians who didn't listen - turn accomplices back into victims.

- Published: 2026-09-07
- Tags: [Germany](https://unprompted.dirkprimbs.de/tags/germany.md), [hm...](https://unprompted.dirkprimbs.de/tags/hm.md), [Elections](https://unprompted.dirkprimbs.de/tags/elections.md), [Democracy](https://unprompted.dirkprimbs.de/tags/democracy.md)
- Web page: https://unprompted.dirkprimbs.de/posts/mittaeterschaft.html

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There was an election in Germany yesterday, and for the first time since the Second World War a party that is officially classified as far-right - and in parts demonstrably hostile to the constitution - has been voted into power.

Trump's delight alone tells you everything you need to know about this election. The AfD stands for anti-Euro, for pro-Russia, and above all for the classics: the foreigners are to blame for everything, the country is going to the dogs, everything was better back then.

Online and in the usual media outlets people are licking their wounds. Politics didn't listen properly, you hear and read. The people were voting in protest. Or: the people are uninformed and simply indoctrinated by particularly skilful media manipulation...

I find explanations like that pretty disrespectful towards the people who voted. In Germany, in the USA, and in plenty of other places in the world, there is a truth you have to look in the eye at some point: people vote for messaging they like. In the end that means they put people in power who make no secret of their hatred of foreigners, their contempt for alternative ways of living, or their intention to make the right of the strongest the norm again. These are people who are not above casting doubt on science, demonizing the weaker, and cultivating an me-me-me that turns your stomach. And they get voted in anyway, in some places by frightening majorities. 

Trump won the last election with the so-called popular vote. Hitler was hoisted into office with fewer. I'm not trying to compare Trump to the Hitler who started the Second World War, but if you go back to the Hitler who won an election on that particular day, then maybe the comparison isn't so far off after all.

There is a historical comparison for [Saxony-Anhalt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxony-Anhalt) too, the state where the AfD has now won, and it is hard to avoid. It was in a Free State of the [Weimar Republic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weimar_Republic) - Germany's first democracy - that the NSDAP had its first real election victory and went on to supply the Minister President there: [Anhalt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_State_of_Anhalt). Today that Anhalt is part of Saxony-Anhalt, and it is exactly this state where a party with a repulsive background has now been voted into power.

No, with Trump, the [AfD](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_for_Germany), Brexit, Netanyahu and plenty of others, there is really only one conclusion left: there are enough people who want it exactly like this. When Trump has families locked away in ICE detention centers, there are far too many who at least don't think that's entirely wrong. When the AfD demands a so-called "[Remigration](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remigration)", then there are plenty who agree with that too.

Writing off climate change as something you don't have to act against, being skeptical about vaccines, threatening gay and trans people, reducing women to a traditional role again - all of that is part of the repertoire, and people who vote something like that into power are not victims or protest voters. They are accomplices. Mittäter.